SIMs & Calling Cards

The Truphone Apple SIM-based iPad data plan is available two more European countries-- specifically Ireland and Portugal, allowing customers roam through the carrier on their iPad in 40 countries.

Currently 6 countries offer the Truphone iPad data plan, namely Australia, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the UK. The company plans to expand the number with an additional 31 countries by end 2017, bringing the total to 39. The data plan allows customers to roam in the aforementioned countries without additional charges, without need to change carriers or additional roaming fees.

The backbone of the system is Apple SIM, the technology included in cellular-capable iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 (and newer) and all iPad Pro models. It saves the need to change the physical SIM card and simplifies the sign-up process through the "Set Up Mobile Data" section in the Settings app.

Apple quietly slips in the iPad Air 2 a new approach to cellular connectivity with the Apple SIM. In a totally unheralded snippet not flagged in Apple’s iPad launch presentations or press releases, this gives users the flexibility to choose from a variety of data providers directly from the iPad, rather than having to source each SIM from the carriers.

This snippet is hidden away on Apple’s website in the wireless section for the iPad Air 2. This is almost certainly deliberate, as the company would prefer a softly softly approach, rather than appear to directly challenge the carriers for control of the customer.

In the short term, this is probably designed to make sales of cellular-enabled iPads easier through non-carrier channels, as no separate stock of SIMs needs to be maintained.

It also delivers direct and real customer benefits, as they are able to select and switch between carriers as required, with far greater ease than previously. It can also allow travellers potentially to choose a local data plan when abroad, with significant savings made as a result.

To start, this option is only available from three US carriers, plus EE in the UK, but it seems likely that others will quickly come on board, or risk losing business. It is also only on the iPad, so only for data, but we can expect Apple to want to extend Apple SIM onto the iPhone in the future.

In the larger scheme of things, this is yet another salvo fired in the direction of the telcos, who are all too often painted as over powerful. The tech industry has long desired a way to bypass the control these players exert - Steve Jobs was rumoured to have considered building a rival WiFi-based network for the original iPhone.

More recently both Google and Facebook have looked at ways to deliver services directly, ostensibly to reach areas of the globe not yet covered. But their approaches - low-orbit satellites and solar-powered drones - once established could be expanded to challenge the telcos more directly.

However so far the carriers have continued to reign supreme, dominating the sales channels for smartphones, and in most countries, successfully tying in the bulk of customers to long-term contracts. Only time will tell as to whether this latest Apple initiative will start to swing the balance of power.

Yet another quarrel is going on between smartphone vendors-- Apple is fighting against Motorola, RIM and Nokia over the SIM card standard the smartphones of tomorrow will using.

Apple proposes nano-SIM, which is thinner and smaller than current micro-SIMs by around 30%. It is also an Apple development, and thus makes other vendors worry Apple will be owning the patents to the technology... So much so Motorola and RIM are backing an alternate design developed by Nokia.

However "most" European operators are reportedly backing the Apple design.

The Financial Times reports both sides of the SIM arguments have tabled proposals to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)-- and the committee is set to vote on the nano-SIM matter later this week.

The SIM ETSI choses is of critical importance to future devices. For instance, the FT says nano-SIM might need a protective "drawer," while Nokia boasts its proposal has "significant technical advantages".

Apple wants to make thinner devices-- and to do so it demands standard SIM cards get even smaller.

The news comes through Reuters' reporting comments from an Orange executive, with confirmation from ETSI (the European telecoms standards body).

No decisions on actually starting the standardisation work (a process potentially taking more than a year) is done yet, mind. The process could get a boost should the companies making the standards commitee reach a "broad consensus".

The Orange executive concludes that devices using Apple's tiny SIMs should start appearing next year.

Should Apple's proposal become a standard amongst operators-- and what Apple wants, Apple tends to get-- more vendors will follow in its wake.

Cameras captured one unhappy little girl looking glum amid the splendor of the British royal wedding...

Probably she was thinking of her relatives abroad...

British citizens abroad who are iPad users and who watched the royal wedding faced roaming charges for watching the full YouTube broadcast outside of the UK, calculates Tru, a mobile network for international travelers who was not ashamed to take advantage of the occassion to promote its new Micro Sim for iPad.

A British person who decided "to catch just 45 minutes of the event on their iPad while soaking up the sun in Sydney or San Francisco, will rack up costs with Orange UK of an eye watering GBP 7344, the same person on a T-Mobile contract would be liable to pay GBP 6885."

Tru also says "Watching the full 8 hour BBC broadcast on YouTube's Royal channel could land Orange users a GBP 78,336 bill to welcome them home - enough to pay for Kate Middleton's dress, her tiara... and even the car that takes her to the service."

Tru, launching its Micro SIM for the iPad, wants to engage business users at only GBP 20 for the same amount of data. Now that could be a match made in heaven...

Belkin announces an addition to the Mixit DuraTek durable cable line-- a USB-C cable featuring Kevlar-reinforced conductors and double-braided nylon shielding on the outside.
The USB-C cable is certified by both...

Snap-- aka the rebranded Snapchat-- announces the Spectacles, its video-recording sunglasses, are now available in Europe, 7 months after an initial US launch.
For the unfamiliar, the Spectacles are a pair...